Rising sea levels could mean trouble for city’s in British Columbia

According to Oceanographer,John Englander, British Columbia faces a major up hill battle to keep cities from becoming lost at sea.

By the year 2100, if sea levels continue to rise due to climate change, residents could see parts of Vancouver, Delta, Victoria and South Surrey go under water.

A map from Climate Central shows what BC might look and what cities might be under water

Englander says there is no stopping sea levels from rising, however, we can slow it down and start to prepare.

“We really need to think differently, because whether it be Delta or some other place over in Victoria or up in False Creek or wherever, I mean every place is different all over the world, sea levels being meters higher is a really disruptive concept”

Englander calls this a “daunting” challenge for BC and says we must tackle climate change now, or we could lose parts of Vancouver to the sea.

“The good news, we have decades to begin to adapt, but we can’t wait because it means changing our concepts for infrastructure and building codes; and recognizing that as sea levels rises, which is no longer stoppable,we can slow it and we should do that, but we really need to think differently.”

Englander adds that we need to look at this as the class half full.

“You can either look for it as the glass half empty which is very scary, which it is. The glass half full is that we actually have decades to begin planning, which is not the case for other kinds of flooding like tsunami or you know deadly typhoon or something like that”